Top 10 Fonts of 2011

It’s that time once again, and as the man said, “The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast. The slow one now, will later be fast.” Since we wrote last year’s Top 10 Fonts post, we’ve increased our font options from 6500 to over 12,000. That’s a big Twinkie! Not to mention, with fonts designed by 127 foundries from 27 countries, the Top 10 Fonts list comes from what is a truly global playing field. It’s like the Font Olympics over here.

Onward now to the podium! Exciting changes were afoot, and while YWFT Hannah successfully defended the Gold from 2010, everything else was a complete shakeup. Perhaps it was our new TypeBrowser™ testing suite and extended license options that gave some of the newcomers a shot for the top. As always with our Top 10 List, the ranking is based on sales, not anybody’s personal picks.

As a thank you to our customers for our best year ever, we are offering the all-new Top 10 Fonts of 2011 Collection, which saves you over 25% off of the original prices.

1 | YWFT HannahTaking the flames of Mt. Olympus for a third year in a row is our own in-house Rocky Balboa, YWFT Hannah. It’s all about incredible detail and crushing OpenType body blows, and Hannah never cries to Mick. There are many imitators, but nothing can duplicate.

2 | StrangeloveInspired by Pablo Ferro’s designs for the film, and fighting all day in the War Room is the hand-drawn, stark raving smackdown of Strangelove. Given its serious power to inspire, and beautiful lines to captivate, we can understand why so many of you rode this awesome bomb all the way to Number Two.

3 | CiderLooking like a Coca-cola wedding invite and an Illy espresso cup met at calligraphy class, this gorgeousness is based on an actual logo for a brand of Finnish apple cider. One look and it’s easy to see why this sexy beast came from nowhere to take the bronze.

4 | Graphique ProWith more than 400 characters including the complete Latin and Cyrillic glyph sets, this super metal monster clangs into the Number Four slot with the sound of a thousand gods bowling. Headlines, posters, signs, CD covers, book titles…nothing is safe from the sheer blast of all-caps, shadowed power.

5 | IdlerHalfway down the list we hit a true beauty. The bold pyramids of Idler rise into the night sky under a desert moon, with an undeniable, Duck Dodgers/Art Deco sort of retro-tude. With six weights of propaganda-packing poster power, this was a shoe-in for the Top 10.

6 | YWFT UltramagneticScore one for the home team. The prodigal son returns to the Top 10 this year. Harley Davidson, Starbucks, Disney Channel, Best Buy, Nike, Wired Magazine and Architecture Magazine have known the power of this bad boy, and it spent much of 2002-2006 at Number One. Good to see you again, friend!

7 | TelemarkHere’s one for the travelers, the journeymen, the prospectors and the pioneers. Signs and banners clear out to Needles are feelin’ fine as cream gravy for this smooth customer. Number Seven is a monolinear slab of real ornamental power.

8 | YWFT HLLVTKAThis crazy hand-drawn beast was converted to OpenType in December of 2010, and made it all the way to Number Four on last year’s Top 10 with just one month of sales. It’s still here a year later, hanging strong at Number Eight. Makes sense, as it was lovingly derived from the beloved eternal standard: Helvetica.

9 | YWFT SignatureLast year, we asked, “Do you need to scribble some things with a Sharpie…on a billboard? 40 feet high?” A lot of you answered in the affirmative, rocketing this meticulously-crafted custom handwriting typeface to Number Nine.

10 | GibsonRounding out the Top 10 for 2011 is the inimitable Gibson font family, which just keeps on hitting the right spot for many people and on many levels. Named for Canadian designer John Gibson (1928-2011), this 8-font family is especially affordable for design students.

Honorable Mentions for 2011 go to the Art Deco/ancient rune-inspired TJ Evolette A, the warmly geometric Lodgecode and the stylized, hand-drawn Populaire. While they did not make it into the Top 10 list, they came very close!

And that brings us “writers and critics who prophesize with a pen” to the end once again. Thanks again, happy 2012, and don’t forget, you can get all of these at a 25% discount when you purchase the Top 10 Fonts of 2011 Collection.